HIB024n The power of a medieval ruler. The governmental practice of Přemysl Otakar II and other rulers

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. David Kalhous, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Lukáš Reitinger, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Lukáš Reitinger, Ph.D.
Department of History – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of History – Faculty of Arts (50,00 %), Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies – Faculty of Arts (50,00 %)
Prerequisites
- Ability to understand contemporary historical sources (latin)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to methodological approaches that can be used to comprehensively evaluate the forms and "intensity" of the power of a particular ruler in different areas of his rule. An example ruler will be Přemysl Otakar II or other rulers of the 13th century. The students will participate in the creation of partial analyses which will point out the benefits and weaknesses of this methodological approach.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to 1) have an overview of the issues of space and sovereign power in humanities (spatial turn; core/periphery/central places; itineraries; a symbolic layer of ruler´s power) 2) an overview of research on the Přemyslid government 3) have an idea of the possibilities of digital humanities in the analysis of the monarchical government (work with excel; introduction to GIS; network analysis) 4) ability to work with royal charters and other contemporary sources of the 13th century
Syllabus
  • 1) Space and sovereign power: A General Introduction (D. Kalhous)
  • 2) Müller-Mertens and his method (D. Kalhous)
  • 3) "Ottakar" sources and "Ottakar" research (L. Reitinger)
  • 4) Müller-Mertens digital: excel spreadsheet, assignments; digital geography and the Middle Ages (D. Kalhous, L. Reitinger)
  • 5) Questions of Otakar's Itinerary I (L. Reitinger)
  • 6) Questions of Otakar's Itinerary II. L. Reitinger)
  • 7) Evaluation of Otakar's itinerary (L. Reitinger, D. Kalhous)
  • 8) People around the King: prosopography and networks (Guests: L. Führer, J. Škvrňák)
  • 9) Evaluation of the people around the king (L. Reitinger)
  • 10) Problems of reconstructing the itinerary of Wenceslas II.
  • 11) Problems and evaluation of the itinerary of Wenceslas II.
  • 12) Where did Wenceslas II rule from and comparison with the analysis of Přemysl Otakar II.
Literature
  • E. MÜLLER-MERTENS, Die Reichsstruktur im Spiegel der Herrschaftspraxis Ottos des Großen. Mit historiographischen Prolegomena zur Frage Feudalstaat auf deutschem Boden, seit wann deutscher Feudalstaat? Berlin 1980.
  • Ottokar-Forschungen, ed. A. Kusternig, M. Weltin, Wien 1978/1979 (Jahrbuch für Landeskunde von Niederösterreich, Neue Folge 44/45).
  • JAN, Libor. Václav II. Král na stříbrném trůnu 1283-1305 (Wenceslas the Second. The King on a Silver Throne 1283-1305). Vydání první. Praha: Argo, 2015, 740 pp. Ecce homo ; svazek 21. ISBN 978-80-257-1544-4. info
  • ŽEMLIČKA, Josef. Přemysl Otakar II. : král na rozhraní věků. Vyd. 1. Praha: NLN, Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2011, 752 s. ISBN 9788074221187. info
  • JAN, Libor and Jiří KACETL. Pocta králi. K 730. výročí smrti českého krále, rakouského vévody a moravského markraběte Přemysla Otakara II. 1. vyd. Brno - Znojmo: Matice moravská, 2010, 264 pp. ISBN 978-80-86488-67-7. info
  • ALVERMANN, Dirk. Königsherrschaft und Reichsintegration : eine Untersuchung zur politischen Struktur von regna und imperium zur Zeit Kaiser Ottos II. (967)973-983. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 1998, 446 s. ISBN 3428091906. info
Teaching methods
- Lecture - Seminary
Assessment methods
credit
Language of instruction
Czech
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/HIB024n